The Human Factor in the Navy

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 2 November 1910, Page 62

The Human Factor in the Navy

"Men fight, not ships,” is the principle of the German Navy. ' "Japan can count on men slightly stronger than armourplates,” says a Japanese writer; and the phrase is a good modern rendering of our own Hearts of Oak. The one abiding lesson of every great naval victory, from Salamis to Tsu-shima, is that men are more than matter; and the mistaken inferences drawn from them have been mainly due to forgetfulness of the fact. We cannot, however, measure the moral qualities of the seamen of different nations by the law-s of arithmetic; we cannot assign co-effieients to the value of the habit of the sea, to discipline, or readiness to dare and die, to love of Sovereign or country. We can barely estimate comparative efficiency in such vital matters as gunnery and seamanship. Even if all nations published, as we do. their gunnery returns, we should really have got but little further. The target does not fire back; the whole psychological factor is absent. We can only estimate the comparative strength of the different Navies in men by comparing their numbers, the length of"service.and their organisation for war. Great Britain and the United States obtain their men by voluntary enlistment; all the other great naval Powers, rely on compulsory service for their navies as for their armies, though it is usually tempered with a considerable amount of volunteering on the part of men who choose the naval service rather than the military, and of others who elect to serve on in the Navy after their period of obligatory service has expired. In point of numbers and length of service the principal Navies of the world stand thus: — Active Length of Service. Reserve. Service. Great Britain 131,000 58,000 12 years U.S.A. 50,000 ? 12 years Germany 53,000 110,000 3 years France 53,000 120,000 2 years Japan 42,000 15,000 3 years Italy 31,000 ? 3 years Austria-Hungary .. 13,000 ? 3 years